II Peter 1:17 Honor and Glory

(soft music) - Welcome to Steadfast Hope. I'm Stephen Lawson, president of One Passion Ministries. And four times a week, I teach through a portion of scripture to encourage you in your Christian walk. Join me now for this brief devotion in God's Word. - Welcome to Steadfast Hope. You've tuned into a great Bible study we're gonna have. I'm Steve Lawson, Kent Stainback, we're coming to you from the iconic herb-sounds Dallas, Texas, a coffee shop, and we are in second Peter 1, verse 17. And the title of this is Honor and Glory. So I wanna begin by just reading this verse. And Kent then we're gonna talk about it. Verse 17 says, "For when he, referring to Jesus Christ, received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased." Kent, that's a great verse, isn't it? - Yeah, it is. - The focus of this is really on the deity of Christ. And we don't have time to walk through all the reasons why we believe in the deity of Christ. But one of the strongest reasons for the deity of Christ is what God the Father says about his son. If you're gonna believe anyone, I would say you'd believe God. What God the Father has to say about God the Son, and what God the Father has to say about God the Son is this is my divine son. And really the cornerstone of Christianity is the deity of Jesus Christ, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So let's walk through this first. It says, "For when he received honor and glory, that points back to the amount of transfiguration." That's Matthew 17 at the beginning of that chapter. And it was at the amount of transfiguration, Jesus received honor and glory. The word honor means greatest esteem and glory means highest praise. Jesus received honor and glory on the amount of transfiguration from whom? From God the Father. Now think about that, Kent. He was God the Father who was giving highest praise to God the Son. He was God the Father expressing greatest esteem for his own son. That speaks to the co-equality of the Son with the Father, the co-deity of the Son with the Father. And he goes on to say such an utterance as this referring back to honor and glory was made to him referring to God the Son by the majestic glory. Now majestic glory here, Kent, is a name for God the Father. Which emphasizes his awesomeness and his transcendence. But his regaled nobility. I love this name for God, majestic glory. And in our English translations, those two words are capitalized, to signify it's a proper name for God. And really what happened on the amount of transfiguration, this Shaqqina glory cloud, descended out of heaven and just hovered over the amount of transfiguration. And God spoke out of the Shaqqina glory cloud and said this, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. This was a declaration of the deity of Christ and of his divine sonship. And he says with whom I am well pleased, this acknowledges the perfection of his Son, the moral excellence of his Son, the constant obedience of the Son to the Father, that would make the Father well pleased. And this was earlier expressed at the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, when the heavens opened up and the voice out of heaven said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And so that launched Jesus' public ministry, but that wasn't the only time God the Father spoke that. Here on the amount of transfiguration, the Father re-issued this same testimony. And he did so in the presence of Peter and James and John. They needed to hear the Father, put his stamp of affirmation and approval upon his own Son, because those three would suffer greatly for the gospel after Jesus ascended back to the right hand of God the Father. They needed to have their feet nailed to the floor. They needed to have their mask, their flag nailed to the mask. And so this really was for the benefit of Andrew, James and John. Jesus certainly knew who he was, that he was the divine Son of the living God. And this was really to pour concrete into their spiritual backbone, to give them a firm assurance as to who Jesus is, to hear the Father give honor and glory to his Son. And it's recorded in Matthew 17 for us as well, that we would know what the Father thinks of the Son. So we need to talk about this as always. - Yeah, and I think this is, it's interesting because, as you said, this is a cornerstone foundation of the Christian life. Without this, there is no Christianity. - Absolutely. - So Steve, how many, just off the top of your head, religions out there who talk about Jesus, who say the name of Jesus, but don't believe he was truly the Son of God in deity. - Oh, Kent, hundreds. - It's in hundreds. - I don't think we, our viewers, I don't think we realize that. - Yeah. - That we, Jesus is, is talked about in the religion. - Yeah. - But when you ask them who he is. - Yeah, I don't have a clue. Kent, we can really bring this home for our listeners. Wherever it is you live, wherever you are as you're watching this, within almost walking distance of your house, there is a church that does not believe in the deity of Christ. - But they say Jesus. - But they say Jesus, they say Christ, they'll have a Christmas something and maybe even an Easter something. But if not within walking distance, very short driving distance, and unless you just live out in the middle of nowhere, that this would be accessible wherever you are. And that's why Peter is saying this because there were so many false teachers in the first century who were saying the opposite. And he's having to really drive this peg into the board that contrary to what these false prophets and false teachers are teaching you, he is affirming by his own testimony. No, I was there on the Mount of Transfiguration. I heard the audible voice of God out of heaven. - Wow. - Say, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. This is the truth from heaven. This is the truth of God. And Peter, speaking as the lead apostle, is bringing this truth to the early church. It's in the canon of Scripture so that every church and every believer down through the centuries would have this record that we would be persuaded of the full deity of Jesus Christ. - So, so Steve, as we talked about these counterfeit religions in another session, our stuff steadfast hope, is it important that if we're not certain with the people we're talking to that are claiming the name of Jesus and even to a church we might be going to, should we then go to them and say, who do you believe Jesus really is? - Oh, absolutely. The great question of Matthew 16, who do men say that I am? - Yeah. - Who do you say that I am? - And if they don't say this. - If they don't say this, you need to saturate that church with your absence. - Yeah. - You need to really go find a real church. - Or know the person you're talking to is not a true believer. - Yeah, that really is the continental divide of really theology. Who do you say Jesus Christ is? 'Cause Christianity is Christ. Knowing Christ, believing in Christ, following Christ, worshiping Christ. If you're wrong about Christ, yeah, you're wrong about everything. If you're right about Christ, then you are well positioned to know the rest of the full council of God. - We've got to ask then, when you name the name of Christ, what do you mean by that? - Yeah, exactly. And what we mean by that is he is the eternal God without beginning the creator of heaven and earth who was born of a virgin who lived a sinless and perfect life, who went to the cross, who was lifted up to die, who bore all the sins of all the people who would ever believe in him, who shed his blood, who made the only atonement for our sin, his blood washes away sin, who was taken down from the cross, buried in a barred tomb on the third day was raised from the dead, the valedate, every claim that he made was ascended back to heaven. He's now seated at the right hand of God the Father, whose so ever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He is soon to come back, he will appear in the sky, we will be caught up to meet the Lord together, and there will be a final judgment for every one, both for believers and unbelievers, and he will usher in his eternal kingdom in the eternal state forever and ever. It is this Jesus, fully God, truly God, truly man, fully man, that we must believe upon. And I trust that you have, and that you go to a church that preaches this Jesus, and Paul says in Galatians 1, "If any man preaches another gospel, other than this gospel, let him be a cursed." That's pretty strong language. So thank you for tuning in today, and I trust that you have believed upon the true Christ. God bless you. May your trust, your faith, and your hope be in Jesus Christ the Son of God. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Steadfast Hope. If this was helpful to your Christian walk, please leave us a review wherever you listen to this show, and if you want to connect on social media, I can be found at Dr. Stephen J. Lawson or at One Passion Ministries. Thank you for listening, and I hope you will join me again for the next episode of Steadfast Hope. [BLANK_AUDIO]